Refugees not America’s problem

Kevin Appleby’s comment that this refugee problem is “the proverbial chickens coming home to roost” because “the United States has ignored Central America for too long” is absurd.

Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and any other nation in Central America are independent, sovereign nations. Appleby would not say, “China has ignored Central America for too long,” or “Afghanistan has ignored Central America for too long,” because they are foreign nations, and it is not their responsibility to clean up Central America.

It is not the United States’ responsibility to go into independent nations and lay down the law. The governments of Central American nations are responsible for protecting their citizens.

Our government has been — and will continue ­— to offer aid to these impoverished nations. We are already going above and beyond the call of duty.

Return immigrants

So the president and certain Catholics want us to just open our arms and take in this some 60,000 minors from Central America. Then how many more? A million? Ten million?

We already take in approximately 1 million legal immigrants each year. President Obama could simply load a plane full of them and return them to their countries and the nonsense would stop.

But the liberals will insist that these minors are in danger, and it is a human rights crisis. Let’s just open all borders and points of entry to let the whole world come in — and then see how you like it.

Alone in faith

At least in the United States people are asking questions; here in Mexico City, nobody asks, nobody is interested, and so many people who still say they are Catholics don’t go to Mass anymore.

Tons of my acquaintances and family are now separated or divorced, the young people cohabit, and my 16-year-old daughter says she’s an agnostic. It’s only me, my 14-year-old and my husband who go to Mass — we hardly know anyone else who does, and our Catholic friends and family now all live in different states or countries. We are pretty much alone in our faith. Everyone seems to be so busy or indifferent.

— Chela Raluy Zierold, via online comments

Gifted columnist

I read with much enthusiasm the referenced article. Columnist J.D. Mullane’s writing is to the point and certainly brings home to all readers of OSV the kind of culture we are all living in today. Keep up the good reporting!

Stop Sunday work

What a breath of fresh air. For years, my husband and I have been so frustrated over the seemingly universal acceptance of Sunday work and shopping.

“Keep holy the Lord’s Day” does not continue with “and then go shopping and paint the house.”

Where has the Church been in all this? How many homilies have you ever heard about what “keeping the Lord’s Day” really means? How many church bulletins ever come out against what used to be referred to as “servile work”?

If the Catholic press will come on board, maybe they can wake a few people up.